Foreplay
by cris.cristina
Summary: She dragged her feel through the damp forest with almost sheer willpower. She was beaten up, chakra drained on top of that it seemd her stomach was spiting her with its groaning noises. OK fine, maybe it had all the rights to do that since she hadn't eaten anything for almost 2 full days.


Do not fall here! Keep it together! Just a little bit! You're almost there Sakura! ...'s ok... you can do it!

She dragged her feel through the damp forest with almost sheer willpower. She was beaten up, chakra drained on top of that it seemd her stomach was spiting her with its groaning noises. OK fine, maybe it had all the rights to do that since she hadn't eaten anything for almost 2 full days.

Bless those soldier pills! Only they and her unbreakable willpower got her to continue to look for a way to go home. Moreover, that blurry vision of hers didn't quite help. She suspected she might have been poisoned. Maybe those senbons were dipped in some weired substance that made her vision blurry, her muscles ache and she was quite sure she couldn't feel her right arm anymore.

Yes, it definetly was some kind of special poison that killed the enemy over a few days because at first she didn't have any simptoms and then it slowly started to attack her body. Until that moment Sakura blamed it only on her chakra depletion, fatigue and lack of proper food but as her state started to worsen she was quite sure it was some rare poison. Damn those Earth nins and their stupid, inbredible effective poisons.

She stopped for a minute to rest against a tree. She just had to keep it together and make it to that decaying shack she saw on her way to deliver the scroll Tsunade gave her for the head of a clan in Earth country. There was no question about it. She was at a disadvantage here; she didn't know this forest very well and knew that there were some fierce beasts wandering around at night. The pink haired kunoichi took the knife out of her leg holster and made a little cut on her thumb. It didn't matter just a little more blood given she was practically covered in it and dirt. Than she squeezed a few drops in a small plastic container that looked very much like a tiny test tube. Put it back in her pouch and kept in mind to check her poisoned blood when, or better if she managed to go back to Konoha. She had to admit it – it certainly was a hell of an interesting poison they had in Earth Country.

Somehow she managed to get to that shack and sleep for a few hours. As she entered in full medic mode she assesed that the poison would kill her in two maybe three days. So the pink haired kunoichi had to refill her chakra levels before anything else.

When she woke up Sakura checked her vitals again and debated whether to attempt a healing session. Her question was quickly answered as she saw her right leg had a peculiar colour somewhat like a bruise but not really. She pressed her palm over her leg and immediately a greenish light started to flare over her beaten member. Given that there was no time or chakra to waste she decided to use a technique Tsunade taught her, namely concentrate enough amount of charka inside the body in order to increase its density so that it absorbes the poisonous substances. The next step was the tricky one as she had to neutralize the poison without any tissue damage. Of course the procedure was simpler without increasing the chakra density but after numerous attempts she sound it to be faster this way.

After healing her leg and being able to walk almot normal, Sakura's chakra was almost drained so she decided to try and hunt something to help her body restore those levels.

If not for her ninja skills she wouldn't have caught anything especially in her state. The dirty kunoichi made her way back to the booth and lit up a small fire to cook the poor beast she caught. She wasn't that into meat but right now Skura would have eaten truly anything with consistence.

While her dinner was cooking, she proceeded to secure the perimeter around the shack in case those rouge nins decided to cone back to make sure she's dead. She placed a seal around and then hid some explosive tags in the trees and on the grounds. That should do the work because it was the best she could do with the poison slowly but surely taking over her body.

When the squirrel was ready she almost devoured it thinking that was the best meal she had ever tasted in her live. After resting for a couple of minutes, she resumed her healing session and checked her heart. After nearly an hour of perfect chakra control she cleansed the poison in the vital areas of her body. The remanants of the poison would have to be neutralized by her body itself because she was almost numb with fatique and eventually blacked out.

Suddenly she woke up, all senses alert and hightened in the middle of the night. Her chakra seal was broken to the north west of her position. Grabbing her kunai she speeded to the exact point only to be taken aback by a loud explosion. Somebody or something stepped on her barriers. Running at full speed through the trees she could clearly distinguish a faint chakra signature. It was very subtle and fainting, almost like it struggled to remain alive for a little longer. Her curiosity peaked only to be replaced by pure mortification. As she focused on the scene unraveling before her very eyes she remained frozen. It wasan't that she hadn't seen a man covered in blood and nearly dying before, but she hadn't seen THIS man in this state before.

Her deep green orbs widened and although she was terrified Sakura was already considering hepling him. She knew was not supposed to even think that but kill him on sight. However smething deep inside didn't let her do just that.

The scene before her eyes was atrocious. He was lying on the ground, face down probably because jumpeed from the tree just before the explosion. Several kunai were embedded in his back piercin through the black cloak. The Akatsuki cloak nonetheless. He had to have travelled in that state some time because as far as she could see the blood on the cloak was hardened. His face was bruised and held the sighs of barely dodging some kunai or senbons. As he was laying on the hard groung unconscious, Sakura was going through an inner turmoil of weather to do her duty as a Konohagakure nin or fulfill her sworn owth as a medin nin to always help those in need no matter what. Her heart was won over by her mind and her green eyes deepened and hardened at the difficult but nevertheless correct task she was about to proceede with. It felt wrong to take a ninja's life as cowardly when he was in no position to defend himself, but her excuse was that this man had already caused enough trouble to let him live. Besides, the nerdened kunoichi comforted herself in thinking that he was an S-class criminal wanted by all nations so at least dying by her hand would be merciful and quick compared with the inimaginable torture that awaited for him in Konoha or other country right? Right!

She had to do it she had to ... Determined to end his life, she approached the nin's seemingly unconscious body, kunai in hand. Sakura sat right above him reaching for his throat when suddenly she felt something warm spreading over her thigh.

In one swift move ne pulled out his kunai and cut through the flesh of the young kunoichi. Sakura suppressed a groan and was already in fighting position, planning her next move and putting together a strategy to fight one of the greatest Uchiha's of all times. She wasn't going to underestimate her opponent despite his precarious state. But suddenly a loud and buffered cough interrupted her thoughts. He was spitting blood and he seemed to be suffocating. Sakura was standing at a few meters away from the dying body. Then she saw it; she saw desperation in his onyx eyes in that split second when he mustered the strenght to open his eyes and look at her. Sakura wasn't new to seeing it in the eyes of her patients at the hospital. But this was surely new to her, seeing something more, something that tore up her insides – resignation maybe? All she knew was that the feeling it gave her was disturbing; maybe because she knew better what it was like to truly be helpless.

That moment she went in full medic mode and decided that whatever was going to happen she was prepared to live with it and maybe, just maybe, Tsunade would understand her choice after making her life a hell that is. She lifted him up on one side and gently pressed a hand over his back, blue-green chakra flowing magically into his back placing her fingers between bloody kunay and senbons. Unfortunately there wasn't much she could do right then but it was enough to sooth his coughing and ease his pain a little bit.

She lifted the unconscious body of one Uchiha Itachi and carried it all the way to the booth.

"Whaaat on Earth am I doing here? He's an S-class missing nin wanted by all nations, especially Konoha."


End file.
